Banana Split Eclairs

Banana split eclairs—I know shut-up, right? But really you should, so you can stuff your face with these (and when you are done don’t forget to make these S’mores Eclairs too). And yes, they taste as good as they look—hard to go wrong with a banana cream stuffed pate choux covered in chocolate.

There’s a little story behind this recipe—if you follow me on Twitter then you know two weeks ago I tweeted about some pastry cream looking like mustard. That was the first run of the banana pastry cream. It tasted great but looked horrible—it was grey, so I tried to tint it with yellow coloring. Disaster.

It looked like mustard—not very appetizing, so I dumped it. Yes, I dumped it. I couldn’t get past the mustard color enough to even enjoy the flavor and neither could my family. Down the sink it went. After the mustard fiasco, I decided to just flip the banana pastry cream to a diplomat cream (diplomat cream being a combination of pastry cream and whipped cream).

That did the trick on the coloring, while also lightening the texture of the banana pastry cream. Round two of family testing was a huge hit. Only problem, Matt and Cole requested theirs with no sprinkles. Seriously, Family, we are three years into this blog, no custom orders please.

On a side note, if anyone knows how to color grey bananas into a light colored yellow – please leave a comment letting the rest of us know.

Banana Split Eclairs

Ingredients

Ingredients

Pate Choux

1 cup water

8 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoon sugar

pinch salt

1 ½ cups bread flour

3 large eggs plus 2 egg whites

Filling

Banana pastry cream

1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 cup of whole milk

½ cup cornstarch

½ cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar

1 large egg

3 large egg yolks

¾ cups of banana, mashed (about two medium bananas)

pinch of salt

4 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 teaspoon vanilla

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup confectioner sugar

Chocolate glaze

4 oz. chocolate, 65% cacao

2 tablespoons heavy cream

4 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted

4-5 tablespoons water, warm

Instructions

Place water, butter, sugar and salt in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and add bread flour and stir until combined. Return pan to heat and stir in circular motion until dough forms a ball at the center of pan. Transfer dough to stand mixer bowl and let rest for 5 minutes.

Fit stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Add in one egg at a time and mix on medium until combined. Add 1 egg at a time and mix until fully incorporated before adding the next. Dough should be smooth, if not mix until dough is free of lumps.

Place dough in pastry bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe 2-inch lines, two inches apart onto parchment lined pan. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and pierce each one with a paring knife to release the steam.

To make banana diplomat creme

Combine ½ cup milk and cornstarch stir to dissolve. Add in whole egg, egg yolks and bananas and beat until well combined; set aside. Prepare an ice bath; set aside.

Combine remaining milk with sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove saucepan from heat and transfer mixture to a new pan to reduce any residual heat. Set aside and cool milk mixture for 5 minutes.

Slowly add egg mixture into cooked milk mixture, stirring constantly so the eggs do not curdle. Return mixture to stovetop and stir vigorously until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to stir until the whisk leaves a trail in the pastry cream, about 5-7 minutes. Once pastry cream reaches this stage, remove saucepan from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. Transfer the saucepan to the ice bath. Stir occasionally until pastry cream is cool about 30 minutes.

Place heavy cream and confectioner sugar in a chilled stainless bowl. Using a hand mixer beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

Place chocolate and heavy cream in a bowl over simmering water. Let chocolate and cream sit for 2-3 minutes to melt without stirring. Then slowly stir mixture to combine. Add confectioner sugar and mix to combine. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition until pouring consistency is reached. Set aside and let sauce cool to warm.

Assembly

Cut the side of each éclair and fill with banana crème diplomat. Place filled eclairs on a cooling rack and with parchment paper lined underneath (to catch chocolate drips). Pour chocolate glaze on top (warm glaze as needed to keeping pouring consistency). Place sprinkles on top. Using the remaining whipped cream, pipe a dollop on top of chocolate and finish with a maraschino cherry.

Notes

A few notes:

The diplomat crème is a combination of pastry cream and whipped cream. You can skip the whipped cream and just fill the eclairs with banana pastry cream, but keep in mind the banana cream will have a greyish tint to it. I made this a diplomat cream to help to lighten the color, since adding any yellow food coloring to the banana pastry cream seemed to give it a mustard color. Along with that the whipped cream and will also lighten the texture of the pastry cream.

To stay ahead, make the filling a the chocolate glaze a day in advance. Heat the chocolate glaze in the microwave for ten second intervals checking and stirring in between until pouring consistency is achieved.